I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:17
In the previous blog post, Great Exploits, we saw that we all want to perform great exploits but we also saw that the key to embarking on these exploits courageously is an intimate understanding of our Lord. Paul, the author of the book of Ephesians, had understood it and even when he was in the prison, he was writing letters blessing the Ephesian church, where he had spent two years preaching the gospel of Jesus. Paul, even though he was in the prison, was still doing what God has called him to do, to bring people to Jesus.
To do great exploits, we must cultivate a strong prayer life. Sometimes we tend to get busy with our lives and only remember God when we encounter difficulties or temptations. However, as one of my favorite preacher said it well, we need to remember that if we don’t have a secret place with the Lord, then we can not place a demand on Him publicly. We see this in Acts 19: 13-16, where some Jews were praying over people who were demon-possessed and would say “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” and one day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all.
Why did those Jews talk about Paul? what did he have they did not have? They knew Jesus through Paul and had seen Paul perform miracles in the name of Jesus yet they could not perform them even though they were using the same name! The only response is that Paul had cultivated a strong prayer life in secret before he start performing miracles. He was one of the apostles Jesus asked to leave everything behind and follow him and he did. Throughout the bible, we see Jesus cultivating his own strong prayer life even though He was fully God and fully man (Philippians 2:7). Since Jesus was himself, intentionally and regularly taking the time to pray, who are we and what strength do we expect to use in navigating this life if we do not spend time with God in the secret?
To know Him better, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and revelation. Since God is Holy, our human nature cannot grasp His sovereignty. We need to cultivate our secret place, there was a seed that was planted in us when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and we need to cultivate it for it to grow. Every word that we get from God will surely change our whole perspective on a specific situation and the only way we can get that word we long for, is in the secret place. Matthew 6:6-7 tells us that when we pray, we need to go into our room, shut the door and pray to our Father who is in the secret place; and our Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Many may be waiting for a miracle this year, waiting for that job you have been praying for, the husband or wife you truly want, the child that you cried for, the joyful life that you long for. I want to remind you that all these things and even more than we would ever think about, are given to us when we go in our secret place and cultivate a strong prayer life that is intentional and consistent. And if you have not yet accepted Jesus in your life, I invite you to do so and He will make your life one that is beautiful and full of miracles. He loves you unconditionally, and has sent His only son to die for your sin! (John 3:16) The Lord is calling you and has been after you for a long time! It’s time to come home, accept Him and watch Him change your life.
You can reach out to the redeemed team if you need someone to pray with you and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior at sharetheredeemed@gmail.com.
Prayer: Father God, I love you and praise you. I recognize that on the cross you put my sins to death, you put captivity to death, you took everything that could hold me bound and you bounded it and when you raised up, I was raised with you. For this, for the work you already did, I want to devote my life to you again, help me to cultivate a strong prayer life. Meet me in the secret place and mold me into who you want me to be. May your Holy Spirit gives me wisdom and understanding of who you are, may the anointing you have put on me brings many to you. I want to live for you and no one else! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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